I need to get schooled on quality "warm color" LED bulbs/ flashlights

Right now, since I am a photographer, I have chosen all incandescent flashlights for lighting up a subject.
To give an example, the only LED I own is a Zebralite "neutral" color headlamp.

I have used incans for light painting and they are phenomenal if you use the right technique and don't need a lot of output/ throw.

BUT

I also want to give warm ("neutral") LED flashlights a try since they can add brightness to my photos.
Keep in mind a flashlight that costs hundreds of dollars is just not an option for me. I think those kind of investments are for people with more money,
or maybe they just like to collect cool flashlights. No problem with that. I think flashlights are fun and I don't blame them for doing it.

To summarize , the best light in terms of color rendition is of utmost importance to me, regardless if it is LED or incan.
I have found that incans, despite their better color accuracy for photography, they just do not put out a lot of light, and that is what inspired me to post this.

What sort of incans are you using? Incans have the best color rendition available, but at a relatively low color temp.
*edit - I mean to ask how bright are the ones you're using? There are some awesomely bright incan flashlights available at reasonable prices.

The Lenslight Mini has some great features for photography (unsurprising since it was developed by Chapman/Leonard). It uses a warm High CRI XP-G and can go from a hotspot free floody beam to a tight throw. But it's $159, which might be out of your budget.

One way you can try some of the different High CRI emitters is by going to the marketplace and getting a couple of P60 drop-ins. A Solarforce P60 host can be had for less than $20, then you can get an incan drop-in (~3300k), a high CRI XP-G drop-in (~3000-3500k), and a Nichia 219 drop-in (~4500-5000k). A basic diffuser or bouncing the light should manage the hotspot in most cases.

Maglite because it was inexpensive and I knew I could mod it one day. I got a two-pack, one 4D plus one AA mini. So far they get the job done but, when it comes to anything lightpainting beyond 100 yards max they are useless. (I only have a 15 second long exposure timer on my current camera, which is one reason for this)

Question: How is ANY incan bulb better than the other in comparison? Beyond the kind of battery and reflector that powers it and makes it brighter?


I would love to be proven wrong, on my assumption that all incan bulbs are the same.
What it all boils down to is that if one bulb is supposed to be better than another, I'm buyin' it, but it seems there is
a fine line between the quality of a bulb and it's abilty to put out large amounts of light. (?!)

waxycap said:

Question: How is ANY incan bulb better than the other in comparison? Beyond the kind of battery and reflector that powers it and makes it brighter?

I would love to be proven wrong, on my assumption that all incan bulbs are the same, basically, when it comes down to the quality of the spectrum light they emit.

Click to expand...

You'd have to define "quality". In one sense they're all the same, black body radiators that emit light that's (by definition) 100 CRI. That "quality" will be useless if the temperature is stupidly low, something around 500K will be all but useless for accurate colour renditioning.

On the other hand, between the voltage ranges, robustness and so on they aren't the same. Let's take two bulbs. One puts out light at ~3000K and requires 4.5 V. The other puts out at 3000K as well but requires 6 V. I might be able to overdrive the former by powering it with 6 V and get a higher colour temp (as well as a lot more light). This will evidently reduce its lifespan, but maybe that's outweighed by the higher colour temp. Both will be at 100 CRI, but the former might be better since it's a closer approximation to daylight. Or it might not, depending on your needs.

There might also be a 3rd bulb that's spec'd the same as the first (~3000K at 4.5 V) but will blow at 5 V. Is it of lesser use than the first two? Probably, but it might be cheaper if you don't want to overdrive it.

I'd say flip through the incan section to get a better idea of what they're really capable of. Roar of the Pelican (ROP for short) is a common mod that gives good results.

Th232, hey thank you for the helpful input.
Clearly, I do not yet have a grasp of the proper terminology but you are helping. For example, off the top of my head, when you
said "100 CRI", I had no idea what to think, other than it's a measurement language for LED's.

As you say, the voltage may be important when considering what results I could get depending on my flexibilty.
Roar of the Pelican... yes, I have heard of it. we'll see how that one goes.